MINK STOLE ARE BACK!

I honestly didn’t see this coming. Not even for a second. The idea that we’d be announcing a brand-new Mink Stole album in 2026 was definitely not on our bingo card.

And yet, here we are.

There are records that simply refuse to disappear. They don’t need chart positions, anniversary box sets or algorithms to survive. They live on because the people who heard them never really let them go.

For me, New Improved Bad End has always been one of those records. Produced by Dave Sardy and released by BMG back in 1996, it remains one of the most fearless, uncompromising and criminally overlooked noise rock records ever to come out of Germany and probably the world. Alongside Ulme, Mink Stole were the absolute spearhead of German noise rock for me in the mid-’90s. New Improved Bad End had an incredibly formative impact on me. Their performance at the 1996 Bizarre Festival still echoes in my memory. I only recently discovered that a video of that show actually exists.

Watch it. Seriously.

The best part? Nobody actually planned any of this.

“Ralph and I met again after ages. Initially we simply wanted to play New Improved Bad End once more. Sascha Saygin took over from former drummer Jochen Röder, the rest of the classic line-up came together again, and then one new song after another just burst out. At some point we realised we were actually making a new LP,” says vocalist Ian Spehr.

Right now, Mink Stole are in the studio recording their first new album in three decades, it will be called Fantastic Fur. It’ll arrive in early 2027. Needless to say, we’re ridiculously excited.

Could someone ask whether it’s slightly absurd to celebrate a band after a thirty-year break like they’re the hottest thing on the planet? Absolutely. We’ll happily take that question. Because this is exactly the kind of band Exile On Mainstream exists for. Because great bands don’t suddenly become less great just because the calendar keeps moving. And because we’re still spectacularly bad at doing what everybody else considers normal.

Welcome back, Mink Stole.

We’ve missed you.

New, improved, bad end – now with groundbreaking longevity formula! Why wait? Get it now or EAT FUR!!!